Mary Frith alias Mall [sic] Cutpurse. 1662.

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Mary Frith alias Mall [sic] Cutpurse. From a rare print prefixed to her life, 1662. Frith (1589-1663 according to the Newgate Calendar),was a resident of London's infamous Alsatia district, a criminal sanctuary between Fleet Street and the Thames. She was renowned for heavy drinking and going about in men's clothes. She was allegedly a thief ("Moll Cutpurse"), a fence and a highway robber but died in her bed. Her notoriety led to an early semi-fictional biography and to further mythologising, as in Middleton & Dekker's 'The Roaring Girl'.